Does It Need Saying?
by Shadowxwolf
Summary: Yes, another fic about the last goodbye between the Doctor and Rose. TenxRose, pretty self explanitory


I know _everyone _is doing these, but it's just one of those things that's too good to leave alone! Such a tragic end to the last series dontcha think? For all us TenxRose fans it was almost too much. Well, for me it was anyway. I was disappointed that nobody actually snuffed it though...that's just me though (I'm a sadist)

Anyway, here's my version of the final goodbye between Rose and the Doctor (it's a bit like Dave in Silence in the Library now isn't it? Proper Doctor and Other Doctor)

* * *

He knew what was going to happen, from the time the Doctor, the _real _Doctor, opened his mouth and said they were going to Bad Wolf Bay, he knew what would happen there.

They exited the TARDIS - the Doctor, Jackie, Rose, and the proper Doctor and Donna. A feeling of foreboding came over the man in the blue suit, the one with only one heart, as he listened to Jackie chatting happily about her son.

'Hold on, this is the parallel universe, right?' Rose realised. He could hear the bemusement in her voice. What were they doing here?

'That's right, you're back home,' the other Doctor, the _proper _Doctor, replied. Only the man in the blue suit noticed the crack in his voice, knew the unbelievable courage it took for him to say those words. The same thoughts ran through their heads and they both knew it: Rose Tyler's home was on the TARDIS. It was par of her and she of it; the Bad Wolf. Still, he couldn't help but smile at the new Donna as she explained the science of parallel universes. It wasn't a proper smile though, just a quirk of the mouth; what was about to happen would be too terrible for smiles.

Rose was bewildered. She had only just found the Doctor and he was abandoning her again. 'I spent all that time trying to find you! I'm not going back now.' It was that selfish streak in her that the Doctor loved so much, the fighting will that had let her become the Bad Wolf in the first place. He wouldn't have expected anything less from her.

'But you've got to.' The proper Doctor was finding this harder and harder, and the man in the blue suit could tell. It was a desperate bid to let her be happy, and he was sacrificing himself yet again. The other Doctor could see his mind shying away from the empty, lonely void it would have to return to, to give Rose the normal life she deserved. He explained it in terms of the boundaries of the universe closing permanently, hiding behind science to save his raw wounds. They had barely closed since the last time they had parted.

The worst part was that he was giving her to himself, his other self. The part of him that needed her more. 'He committed genocide, he's too dangerous to be left on his own,' he explained as his hearts splintered.

'You made me,' the man in the blue suit pointed out.

'Exactly.' The proper Doctor was still looking at Rose, and the man in the blue suit knew he was memorising her face, every wisp of her hair, every eyelash. 'You were born in battle, in blood and anger and revenge – remind you of someone?' he asked Rose, his voice finally breaking. She looked away; she knew the answer. 'That's me, when we first met.' Rose turned to look at him again, the man she loved. She knew what was happening now – she was going to be left behind, again. 'And you made me better,' the proper Doctor insisted, trying to tell her how important she was. 'And now you can do the same for him.' Nobody else could. This was the truth.

'But he's not _you_,' she pleaded. There it was, that fundamental human trait of uniqueness that was so brilliant and yet so terrible. Up to now, the man in the blue suit had watched the exchange between himself and the woman who meant more to him than the universe, but now his single heart constricted painfully in his chest. Her words then were worse than anything. She would never look at him the way she did the first Doctor, _her_ Doctor.

'He needs you,' the Doctor told her sternly. 'That's very me.'

She didn't believe him. They just weren't the _same. _She was about to argue when Donna broke in and urged the man in the blue suit to tell her what it really meant. So he did tell her. Same mind but one heart, one life, so that he would age with Rose, could be with her forever. It was the most the Doctor could give her.

All three of them remembered now the conversation they had during the incident with the Krilitanes: '_You grow old and you die. You can spend the rest of your life with me, but I can't spend __the rest of mine with you.'_ Now he could. But it was the wrong Doctor, and all three of them knew that as well.

'You'll grow old at the same time as me?' she asked. Her hand reached forward to feel the beating of his single heart. She had never touched him like that before, so tentative, like he would disappear at any moment. The pace of his pulse quickened, but there was still doubt in her eyes.

The TARDIS gave a warning; the barriers were closing.

'We've got to go,' the proper Doctor said quickly. 'This reality's sealing itself off – forever.' That last word had a note of finality that nobody liked. The Doctor truly hated goodbyes, and this was the hardest he'd ever had to say.

Rose hadn't given up on her Doctor. 'But it's still not right,' she insisted. Didn't she know how hard this was already? No, it was that selfish streak again, that fire that had first drawn the Doctor in. 'Because the Doctor – he's still. . .still _you_.'

'And I'm him,' the Doctor replied quickly, nodding at the man in the blue suit. They both knew it wasn't true.

'Alright,' Rose said in a tone of 'prove it'. 'Both of you, answer me this.' They knew what was coming. 'When I last stood on this beach, on the _worst_ day of my life,' she began, glancing from one to the other. THe delicate emphasis of her words cut the Doctor in a brand new way. 'What was the last thing you said to me?' her eyes were staring down the proper Doctor now – he had said it after all. She needed to hear him say it. He couldn't leave without letting her hear those words. 'Go on, say it,' she dared.

'I said Rose Tyler,' the Doctor answered. The second part was screaming through his brain, needling his hearts as he stood there gazing at her hopeful, bemused, terrified, beautiful face and knowing he could never say what he thought.

'Yeah, and how was that sentence going to end?' she pressed.

This was torture. He wanted to say it; his body almost burst with the effort of trying to keep his emotions contained, but he couldn't. If he did, he knew he could never leave her, never let her live out the normal life she deserved. The only way was to renounce his feelings.

'Does it need saying?' he pleaded. Please, don't make me say it. He was trembling now with the effort of what he had to do.

'And you Doctor?' she asked, turning to the man in the blue suit. 'What was the end of that sentence?'

The man in the blue suit leaned over and whispered in her ear, those three words that had gone unspoken between them for so long. It made her heart stop. It made the Doctor's hearts freeze. This was the hardest thing in creation he had ever had to do. This was why he never said goodbye.

Then she reached forward and kissed the man in the blue suit; he kissed back, with all the passion that was denied the proper Doctor. He couldn't stand to watch. That should have been his kiss, but he knew it couldn't be. Ever. He turned to go, to leave Rose Tyler in the happiness of a normal life with his other self.

She heard the rumbling of the TARDIS's engines and broke his embrace. The Doctor had tricked her. She ran forward but it was too late, the Doctor's ship was already vanishing through the void. The man in the blue suit watched her, the woman he loved, as she tried to reach the other man, his other self, as he disappeared without a word. He came forward and grasped her hand. He had always been amazed at how neatly it fit in his, and now, it could stay there forever.

There were no words. It didn't need saying.

Reviews are nice. Say anything you want about the ending or my fic, I'll talk about both.


End file.
